Q&A WITH DIANA VERDE NIETO, FOUNDER OF POSITIVE LUXURY

“We are incredibly honored to be a member of the Positive Luxury community of brands. I have great respect for Diana’s initiative to further sustainability practices within the luxury market. We admire her work greatly and enjoyed learning more about her personal life as well.” – Danielle Fichera

My name is… Diana Verde Nieto.

I am from Buenos Aires Argentina and am currently based in London, United Kingdom.

My favorite place to travel is anywhere that I can be in contact with nature.

I am the happiest when I spend time with family and friends or exercising.

Growing up, I wanted to be a human rights lawyer.

I cannot live without family, friends, and culture,

One thing people don’t know about me is that I love heavy metal.

My real-life hero is unknown to many and dear to me.

What I love about my work is that I get to work with talented and creative people that share the same passion for what they do and the same sense of urgency to leave a positive impact in the world.

I got started with my current career when I started my own sustainability communications consultancy in 2002.

My favorite artist is – if I had to pick, one of my favorites is Guillermo Kuitca, however, I also love the classics.

My favorite book is Alice in Wonderland.

My favorite film is hard to pick – I love the golden era of Hollywood back when movies like Casablanca, The Philadelphia Story, Citizen Kane, and The Third Man were made.

My favorite musician – I can’t pick one; it depends on the mood. 

My astrology sign is Aquarius.

To me, luxury is having time to be present.

I became interested in sustainability because growing up in Argentina under dictatorship gave me a disproportionate sense of respect. In my view, respect is a key ingredient in any kind of relationship. You break down sustainability to its purest definition coined by Gro H Brutland back in 1980. She coined sustainability as meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations. In essence, sustainability is about respect for people and respect for our world.

We were inspired to create Positive Luxury & The Butterfly Brand Mark back in 2012. Karen Hanton, MBE, and I saw the growing need to enable businesses to communicate their sustainability efforts in an easy language at the point of sale, quenching consumers’ thirst for transparency and authenticity. This, in fact, remains true today.

Through Positive Luxury & The Butterfly Brand Mark, we are trying to achieve behavioral change. Sustainability is a business strategy, not a department. It is applicable to every function of a business, from the CEO to marketing, logistics, and retail

At Positive Luxury, our aim is to keep driving the conversation around sustainability and communication, persuading even more brands to join the movement and to encourage people to vote with their money by looking for the Butterfly Mark at the point of sale. Then, if they can’t find it, ask questions as to why a brand does not have it. #Transparencyisaright

Success to me is, in a business sense, to inspire the companies and people that we work with to think about sustainability as a business imperative, inspiring them to transform the way they do business. On a personal level, to grow old with my friends and my partner.